


What River Knows

by LizBee



Category: Firefly, Serenity (2005)
Genre: F/M, Lists
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-10-06
Updated: 2005-10-06
Packaged: 2017-10-24 00:00:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 604
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/256559
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LizBee/pseuds/LizBee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>River knows many things. Here are twenty-one.</p>
            </blockquote>





	What River Knows

This is what River knows:

1\. The precise harmony of a vibrating fractal-based crystal processor under solar flare conditions.

2\. Names and biographies of all Alliance parliamentarians for the last century, along with key advisors, lobbyists and corporate backers.

3\. The history of the dance form known as ballet on Earth-that-was, and the principles of choreography within that form.

(Once, she wanted to be a choreographer. Her mother laughed, and said she was destined for greater things.)

(Simon said she'd be wonderful, and he'd have box seats at every opening night.)

(Last week, Kaylee asked if River could teach her to dance.)

4\. The Mandarin phrase most guaranteed to insult a Beaumonde settler.

5\. The precise nature of the bond between the Blue Sun Corporation and the Alliance.

(It began with meetings and contracts in clean, bright rooms, and ended with blackmail and murder and blue hands everywhere.)

6\. The texture of Malcolm Reynold's skin as his lips met hers for the first time.

(He pulled away suddenly and said, "I'm gonna end up in the gorram special hell.")

(His apologies were clumsy, but she could see beneath his skin, and she knew that the only reason she didn't understand was that she chose not to.)

7\. The names of the nation-states dominant on Earth-that-was in its final decades.

(The Alliance prefers to forget that there were people left behind. Those who chose to stay, those who couldn't leave. In their millions.)

(She hopes they're still alive, and that some of them are happy.)

8\. The childhood nickname by which their grandmother addressed Simon until he was twelve.

(She is trying to decide if she should sell the information to Jayne, or make a gift of it to Kaylee.)

(Knowledge is a valuable commodity, after all.)

9\. The sound of Mayloree Reynolds's heavy boots on a wooden floor, and the competence of her large hands.

(River's mother was educated and cultured.)

(River has not yet forgiven her mother for abandoning her to the Academy.)

10\. The square root of 5,007,034.5.

11\. The specs of a Firefly-class vessel, and the most efficient and effective ways to hijack or cripple such a vessel.

12\. The names Zoe is considering for her child.

(Zoe hasn't told Mal yet. River is holding her tongue.)

(Simon knows.)

(Kaylee suspects.)

13\. The forms of dance in a zero-grav environment, and the reasons it never became successful.

14\. The reason that Inara left the Guild House for the first time.

(It wasn't a man, or a woman.)

(Stifling boredom, like cheap incense and bad fabric.)

15\. The reason that Inara came back to Serenity, and has not yet left.

(Mal is only part of the reason, which is why Inara has stayed.)

16\. Alliance scientists and statisticians project that three out of four border colonies will fail in their first century of existence. This is an acceptable attrition rate.

17\. The places, positions and times that Simon and Kaylee have made love.

18\. The reason that Shepherd Book knew the Alliance so well, and the fears he held for his own soul.

(Preacher man saw the fallacies and contradictions, but he believed anyway.)

(River doesn't envy him.)

(And they call her crazy.)

19\. The lies that Jayne tells his mother.

(She thinks that he's a security officer, and a knight-errant, and a hero.)

(She might be half right, or at least one third.)

(Which third? River wonders.)

20\. The most efficient method of killing a man.

21\. The curious regret in Mal's eyes as he pushed her away.

(And the sting of a broken heart at seventeen.)

 

end


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